As pressure continues to mount on under-fire Newcastle boss Steve McClaren, fellow Premier League manager Jurgen Klopp has come to his rescue and reiterated the importance of stability.
Klopp is familiar with McClaren from their days of managing in the Bundesliga – Borussia Dortmund and VfL Wolfsburg respectively – and believes Newcastle would be better off sticking by the former England boss.
The last time Klopp met McClaren, the circumstances were very similar – except they were in Germany. Dortmund ran out 3-0 winners and the Wolfsburg board had lost patience with McClaren and decided to part ways.
When questioned about McClaren’s position, Klopp (as quoted by Shields Gazette) said:
I had seven years at Dortmund, seven years at Mainz, so in my opinion (stability is) very important.
“But it can work in different ways. I don’t know about the history of Newcastle, but I know Steve McClaren and his quality and his experience. We have to be aware.
“I’m still a new manager here. I can’t tell you something about Newcastle. I know a bit of their problems in the last year. They thought they needed to buy players and so on, Newcastle haven’t played in Europe for a while, so information in Germany was not easy to get.
If I need to know more of Newcastle, I would take information. We have to play football against them.
He went on to discuss Liverpool’s chances against the struggling Magpies on Sunday and insisted the Reds must respect McClaren’s side: “People expect us to win this game? We expect to win it too. We always do. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have respect.”
Newcastle boss Steve McClaren then went on to praise Klopp’s impact on Liverpool: “He’s a quality coach and I know him well. You can see what Dortmund had is coming in the Liverpool team. They have quality players who work hard. He is doing a good job.”
